Utah Plataeu Antelope?

[brysenb]

This year my dad, little brother, and myself all drew tags for the new muzzleloader antelope hunt on the plataeu unit here in Utah. Early in the summer (around the beginning of june) we went on our first scouting trip and covered most of the area around the aquarius plataeu side on the east-central end of the unit. Much to our dismay however we didn't see very many antelope. Due to work and school issues we weren't able to make it back until labor day for our second scouting trip. This time we had some new information. Two of my dad's employees, my mom's boss, and a buddy I worked with last summer all hunted the unit last year or the year before. They all told us to stay kind of on the west end, more on the Parker mountain side. The only problem was that while we were down there we again saw very few antelope (although the one buck that we saw was rather large!). Again last weekend we headed down, and the number of animals still wasn't what I had expected. From what everyone has told me, the antelope down there are ridiculously thick. My mom's boss went down last year and was tagged out by noon opening morning. And it just so happened that it was his fourth stalk of the morning!!!! So my question is if anyone can help me out. Any suggestions on a different area? Or am I just bad luck?! what's going on.

[brysenb]

and i just realized I'm an idiot and plateau is spelled wrong throughout my post!

[Springville Shooter]

I had the tag last year and saw 200+ antelope every time I went scouting. Try the area north of pollywog lake. Glass all the open stuff, I promise that there are LOTS of goats for the taking out there. I will give you some GPS points if you want them.-------SS

[DeadI]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you are going to have your work cut out for you, and that is if they allow you to even have your hunt. I have heard from a few scources that they are pulling the plug on the Muzz hunt and the antlerless hunt due to the lack of animals on the unit. I its in some serious trouble. Between the many years of pulling to many animals off to transplant to other areas in the state and out of state, two many tags for the lack of animals and the winter kill this last year the heard is hurting big time.

My brother and sister both had rifle tags, we were down they this last weekend and put almost 200 miles on the truck before both tags were filled. And the bucks that we got are not to big, but with the lack of animals we wern't very picky.

Most of the animals that we did see over the weekend (may 40 goats total) were mainly up in the pines, we did not see very many at all out in the big flats.

I hope that you still have your hunt. I have not actually heard this from the DWR you may want to contact them. If you do have your hunt I wish you good luck, but my advice is turn in a couple of tags and try again next year, it was pretty hard for us to fill both tags. If you keep all the tags good luck to you. Let us know how it goes.

[brysenb]

SS- Thanks for the suggestion. We'll surely look into it!

So here's what I found out this weekend..... The Muzzleloader hunt is still on. They cancelled the doe hunt because summer arial surveys showed the population is below their management objective. We got a letter in the mail the other day telling us that the populations were lower than usual, and we do have the option of returning our tags if we're not pleased (without a refund of tag price!!!! ). However, we made the decision that we'd go anyway and give it a shot.... its still gonna be great to have muzzy in hand campin' and huntin'. If we get a goat or two that would be fantastic, but not essential! I'm still PRETTY excited to be going. I can't wait! My dad and grandpa are headed down Thursday morning and my brother and I are leaving straight from school up here in Salt Lake Thursday afternoon.... 5 hours later we'll be in goat country (hopefully). Gonna be a long 4 days!

Anyone else have any suggestions on other places to check out?

[B-DUB]

I had an archery tag this year i did see a couple decent bucks opening weekend and got within 100 yards of nice buck but ran out of cover. Went back the next weekend and hunted my tail off and only seen 8 buck all small 6 to 10 inches. I was hunting around the pollywogg area like springville suggested but the antelope #s just are not there.My wife had a rifle tag and i did'nt want to see he r burn her points on this unit so I turned the tag in.I should probably apologize to the person they called and gave the tag to.

[MuleyMadness]

I haven't been up there in a while, but this use to be the best/biggest heard in the entire State. An Antelope hunters dream. This is sad IMO and this type of crap is unacceptable from the DWR IMO but maybe I'm just complaining. They have transplanted LOTS of antelope off this unit and the say it's always been overpopulated. How do we go from that to turning tags back in and being underpopulated in 1 year? Poor management. I actually wanted to apply for a tag here next year (archery) but I'll wait on that plan now.

Best of luck with your hunts, glad you still have a positive attitude about the hunt. Good luck.

[brysenb]

So we're back. Had a GREAT time down there chasing goats. Thursday afternoon driving into camp a herd almost ran into us while we were unloading the truck. I grabbed my gun and my bro grabbed the camera and we were off. We snuck in to about 300 yards and looked them over really good. There were two bucks, so we got closer and cut the distance in half. I had cap on and hammer back settling the sights on the second buck and my bro called me off, said he was to small. So I grabbed his binos and took a look for my self, sure enough, he was probably within half an inch of ear length. So we left them alone and headed to camp to hear the bad news from my dad who had been down there all day and not seen a single goat. After a delicious bbq elk burger dinner we settled around the fire and made a plan for friday.
First thing friday morning we headed for the pollywog area and on the way a buck about 10'' ran across the road. I wasn't looking for anyting special so we were off. Came over a knoll and there he was probably about 200 yds. The belly crawling began then the buck suddenly took off. Upon closer examination we noticed a road in the bottom behind us and an entire 4-wheeler caravan. At pollywog we spotted a herd of about 30 goats up on the top of a mt. in the quakies and started the stalk only to have a truck drive up behing 'em and spook the whole herd. We watched them settle down and moved again. On the stalk two NICE muley bucks busted us in the quakies and took off. We thought it was over but walked to the edge anyway to have a look. We crested the knoll..... like idiots..... not prepared for what we saw. There was nice buck (probably 12-13'') only 75 yds. As my bro and I scrambled to get a cap on our guns the buck trotted off a little then stopped to give us the perfect broadside shot at 90 yds. Both my brother and I had the "antelope fever" so bad it was all we could do to get the caps on the guns and by the time I drew a bead the buck was super nervous and too off.
Not twenty minutes after our epic blunder we spotted a wounded buck on this crazy lone Mesa like hill just NE of Pollywog. The stalk was on again. My brother and dad posted up on each side of the hill watching escape routes as I went the long way around and made the most amazing stalk of my life. I came up over a rock outcropping to see the buck with his 20 does on a terrace bedded in the quakies. I capped the muzzy snuck over the rock to see them all on their feet looking at me (must have heard me shaking). The buck was alone i cocked the hammer back lined up and shot .My idiocy continued.... the shot went right over his back, I rushed it.
The rest of the day was spent around flossy lake where we found a honey hole of canyons... WITH FEW ROADS. Antelope were on every hill. My brother spotted a group that no kidding, we lost count at 53 goats. We bedded them and head back to camp.
Sat started out on our way to find the huge heard and we spotted a buck with about twenty does down in one of the bottoms. Three hours, and two prickly pears to the stomach later I was 83 yds from the bedded does and my bro was 110 yds from them across a little gully. BUT no buck? we waited and waited then the wind hit our backs.... there they went and still no buck. He was bedded right below the heard and took off with them. From a distance we watched them meet another herd in the bottom and the bucks got pissy with each other. After this encounter we headed back to camp so my dad could go get fuel and then we headed back to pollywog where we found the same buck up on his hill. We put another stalk on only to have a coyote chase them away.... woulda loved to have a coyote pelt that day! We found an arrow with antelope hair on it on top of the hill... So if you were there maybe its yours. I would like to hear the story.
Sunday morning we spotted a herd of about 40 goats with the biggest antelope buck I've ever seen!!!!!! He had to have been at least 20'' wide, big heat shaped horns, tons of mass, and at least, AT LEAST 17'' long. Wish I coulda got a picture. So we had an idea being as he was on the flats..... we took some camo burlap and stabled it to two 4 ft. dowels. We then took off, our make shift blind in front of us across the flat. We got to about 250 yds and the goats walked off the top. we rushed over to find them only to find that they were rushing over to see what we were, and the caught us on the back side of the "blind" and it was over. That afternoon toward flossy lake it was raining like a mother and I spotted a buck bedded. My brother and I were off again I posted up on the escape out of the canyon and my bro went around and came in on top of him. I was sitting watch a small group of 10-12 goats feeding below me in the canyon just south of us debating on whether or not to try for the buck with them when.... BOOM! I spun around to see the goat come whailing down the canyon. I threw my binos up to watch the buck. He stopped and walked then stopped and walked. What was going on. Upon turning I noticed a bloody spot on his left hind quarter. Oh no I thought.... what happened... my bro is the best shot I've ever seen. I watched the buck go over the hill and rushed to my brother. He was sick. He snuck to 110 yds from the buck when he stood up to stretch. He got a rest drew a bead and started squeezing. The instant the hammer hit the cap the buck spun around and hence the hit. We chased that buck for the entire rest of the day and again all monday morning! its amazing how tough they are. You wouldn't have even known he was hurt! On our way back to camp to pack up monday we spotted a herd bedded infront of the camp. We put the sneak on an got to within 30 yards!!! There was a buck feeding we looked him over.... I noticed his heart beat in that little bald patch in his armpit..... that was cool. Upon inspection it was that same little dude from Thursday. I'm under the philosophy that you should shoot on the last day what you wouldn't on the first. So he lived another day.

Though we didn't fill any of the three tags it was a GREAT time. We saw a lot of goats, more than we had expected. Went on a lot of stalks I didn't describe due to how lengthy the post is already (sorry about that). Listening to grandpa's stories for four days, eating good food, and huntin'..... beats school and work any day in my book! We saw over 200 goats in the four days, which I don't think is too horrible. I don't know if its just cuz they were moving due to all the people or what. We didn't quite come home empty handed...... We had a pick up load of shed horns.... The biggest, and the newest for that matter, was 14'' long. Not too bad.

[highcountryarchery]

The antelope herd down here has gone from seeing them everywhere to seeing them in places you wouldnt think an antelope would go. The biologist down here is a heck of a nice guy, what I have been told is he flew the unit and told the big wigs that the numbers were down and needed to reduce tags where he was told that according to there computers the numbers said that tags were where they needed to be. After the bow hunters started calling and turning in tags they flew it again and than started to pull doe tags. This year seems to be a weird year all together for all species it seems the deer and elk have been scarce too so I dono what to say

[DeadI]

Wow I am surprised that you saw that many and had that many chances. We covered all that area on the rifle hunt and never saw even closs to that many goats (Total)